Arranged in a handy A-Z format, this book explores and explains the creatures, plats, events and places that make up these strange and wonderful lands.

    In this book, you'll uncover the history and mystery behind these bloodthirsty monsters with folklore, mythology, and poetry from every tradition in the world. From the Bosnian Lampir, whose disease-ridden corpse spread infection and death throughout villages, to Bram Stoker's charming Dracula, who helped define modern-day vampires, the wicked stories surrounding these nocturnal beings are sure to captivate anyone who has ever wondered about these shadow-loving creatures. Whether you're interested in exploring the culture of vampires or just want to learn more about their supernatural abilities, you'll discover dozens of compelling tales, historical accounts, and haunting legends that shed some light on these sinister beings.Complete with detailed illustrations, Vampires reveals the dark allure and gruesome power of these creatures of the night.

    Hall's legendary The Secret Teachings of All Ages is a codex to the ancient occult and esoteric traditions of the world. Students of hidden wisdom, ancient symbols, and arcane practices treasure Hall's magnum opus above all other works.While many thousands of copies have sold since its initial publication in 1928, The Secret Teachings of All Ages has previously been available only in oversized, expensive editions. For the first time, Hall's celebrated classic is now published in an affordable trade paperback volume. Literally hundreds of entries shine a rare light on some of the most fascinating and closely held aspects of myth, religion, and philosophy from throughout the centuries.More than one hundred line drawings and a sixteen-page color insert reproduce some of the finest illustrations of the original book, while reset and reformatted text makes this edition of The Secret Teachings of All Ages newly accessible to readers everywhere.

    Includes "There's a certain slant of light," "Because I could not stop for death," "It was not death for I stood up."

    The myths have a way of entwining one with another, and it is difficult to present a coherent story line without feeling one has omitted the best part of the story. Inside you will read about... ✓ What Is A Myth? ✓ The Sources Of Greek Mythology ✓ The Creation Of The Universe And The Gods ✓ What Of Man? What Of Woman? ✓ The Greek Pantheon ✓ The Trojan War ✓ The Influence Of Greek Drama ✓ Two Greek Mortal Heroes In Mythological Tales This guide succeeds in presenting an overall sketch of the creation of the world and the battles that follow, resulting in Zeus taking his place as the supreme god and ruling the earth from Mount Olympus. It covers the creation of man, it seems, as a bit of an afterthought for the amusement of the Olympians and some of the most famous stories that have come down to us via the writings of the great dramatists of the Classical Age. There are concise biographies of the twelve gods that make up the Olympians as well as of the heroes of the Trojan War.

    It tells the story of the Fall of Man, a tale of immense drama and excitement, of rebellion and treachery, of innocence pitted against corruption, in which God and Satan fight a bitter battle for control of mankind's destiny. The struggle rages across three worlds - heaven, hell, and earth - as Satan and his band of rebel angels plot their revenge against God. At the center of the conflict are Adam and Eve, motivated by all too human temptations, but whose ultimate downfall is unyielding love.Marked by Milton's characteristic erudition is a work epic both in scale and, notoriously, in ambition. For nearly 350 years it has held generation upon generation of scholars, students and readers in rapt attention and its profound influence can be seen in almost every corner of Western culture.

    They possessed a complicated array of concepts and rituals, a powerful priesthood - the Druids - and a pantheon which included the goddess-queen Medb and the Morrigan, a sinister war-goddess.

    Topics range from ruminations on why Charles Dickens was among the best of writers and the worst of men to the haunting science fiction of J.G. Ballard; from the enduring legacies of Thomas Jefferson and George Orwell to the persistent agonies of anti-Semitism and jihad. Hitchens even looks at the recent financial crisis and argues for the enduring relevance of Karl Marx. The book forms a bridge between the two parallel enterprises of culture and politics. It reveals how politics justifies itself by culture, and how the latter prompts the former. In this fashion, Arguably burnishes Christopher Hitchens' credentials as (to quote Christopher Buckley) our "greatest living essayist in the English language."

    Anna Karenina, Clarissa Dalloway, Daisy Buchanan...each seems to live on the page through celebrated artist Samantha Hahn's evocative portraits and hand-lettered quotations, with the pairing of art and text capturing all the spirit of the character as she was originally written. The book itself evokes vintage grace re-imagined for contemporary taste, with a cloth spine silk-screened in a graphic pattern, debossed cover, and pages that turn with the tactile satisfaction of watercolour paper. In the hand and in the reading, here is a new classic for the book lover's library.

    Along the way, you'll take a ferry ride with Aeneas to Hades, across the river Acheron; meet the Devil as imagined by a twelfth-century Irish monk - a monster with a thousand giant hands; wander the nine circles of Hell in Dante's Inferno and witness the debates that raged in Victorian England when new scientific advances cast doubt on the idea of an eternal hereafter. Drawing upon religious poetry, epics, theological treatises, stories of miracles and accounts of saints' lives, this fascinating volume of hellscapes illuminates how Hell has long haunted us, in both life and death.

    It deals with the central problems of the human condition--with important questions of free will, morality, life after death, the limits of logic and reason--though often in rather esoteric terms. Now, in The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, readers have the most authoritative and engaging one-volume reference work on philosophy available, offering clear and reliable guidance to the ideas of all notable philosophers from antiquity to the present day, and to the major philosophical systems around the globe, from Confucianism tophenomenology. Here is indeed a world of thought, with entries on idealism and empiricism, ethics and aesthetics, epicureanism and stoicism, deism and pantheism, liberalism and conservativism, logical positivism and existentialism--over two thousand entries in all. The contributors represent a veritable who's whoof modern philosophy, including such eminent figures as Isaiah Berlin, Sissela Bok, Ronald Dworkin, John Searle, Michael Walzer, and W. V. Quine. We read Paul Feyerabend on the history of the philosophy of science, Peter Singer on Hegel, Anthony Kenny on Frege, and Anthony Quinton on philosophyitself. We meet the great thinkers--from Aristotle and Plato, to Augustine and Aquinas, to Descartes and Kant, to Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, right up to contemporary thinkers such as Richard Rorty, Jacques Derrida, Luce Iragaray, and Noam Chomsky (over 150 living philosophers are profiled). Thereare short entries on key concepts such as personal identity and the mind-body problem, major doctrines from utilitarianism to Marxism, schools of thought such as the Heidelberg School or the Vienna Circle, and contentious public issues such as abortion, capital punishment, and welfare. In addition, the book offers short explanations of philosophical terms (qualia, supervenience, iff), puzzles (the Achilles paradox, the prisoner's dilemma), and curiosities (the philosopher's stone, slime). Almost every entry is accompanied by suggestions for further reading, and the book includes both achronological chart of the history of philosophy and a gallery of portraits of eighty eminent philosophers, from Pythagoras and Confucius to Rudolf Carnap and G.E. Moore. And finally, as in all Oxford Companions, the contributors also explore lighter or more curious aspects of the subject, such asDeaths of Philosophers (quite a few were executed, including Socrates, Boethius, Giordano Bruno, and Thomas More) or Nothing so Absurd (referring to Cicero's remark that There is nothing so absurd but some philosopher has said it). Thus the Companion is both informative and a pleasure tobrowse in, providing quick answers to any question, and much intriguing reading for a Sunday afternoon. An indispensable guide and a constant source of stimulation and enlightenment, The Oxford Companion to Philosophy with appeal to everyone interested in abstract thought, the eternal questions, and the foundations of human understandin

    This prodigious narrative, composed by the poet Ferdowsi between the years 980 and 1010, tells the story of pre- Islamic Iran, beginning in the mythic time of Creation and continuing forward to the Arab invasion in the seventh century. As a window on the world, "Shahnameh" belongs in the company of such literary masterpieces as Dante's "Divine Comedy," the plays of Shakespeare, the epics of Homer- classics whose reach and range bring whole cultures into view. In its pages are unforgettable moments of national triumph and failure, human courage and cruelty, blissful love and bitter grief.In tracing the roots of Iran, "Shahnameh" initially draws on the depths of legend and then carries its story into historical times, when ancient Persia was swept into an expanding Islamic empire. Now Dick Davis, the greatest modern translator of Persian poetry, has revisited that poem, turning the finest stories of Ferdowsi's original into an elegant combination of prose and verse. For the first time in English, in the most complete form possible, readers can experience "Shahnameh" in the same way that Iranian storytellers have lovingly conveyed it in Persian for the past thousand years.

    Carol Rose introduces the reader to the little--and not so little--folk, delightfully various and, at the same time, strikingly similar from country to country. Wherever humans have lived, the supernatural beings have dwelt alongside us. People serve to explain the unexplainable--the strange disappearance of a traveler in a dark wood, that odd thumping in the attic, the fresh cream turned sour overnight. Often they reveal the stoic humor with which human societies have faced their difficulties. But whatever their source, our guilts, fears, dreams, or imaginations, the spirits have fascinated and enchanted us through the millennia. Chosen by Library Journal as a Best Reference Source.

    Its greatest treasures were discovered in royal tombs and were inevitably connected with the cult of the dead.But the picture of a gloomy march to the grave is a false one. It results from the accident of survival--the royal tombs were built like fortresses and their spectacular contents overshadowed by the evidence of everyday life. This book shows the truer picture: it demonstrates the remarkable diversity of the gods of Egypt and tells the stories that were told about them, and shows how profound and complete were the beliefs which covered the span of life of the ordinary man, no less than that of Pharaoh, who was regarded as a god on earth.

    Exceptional Coverage. This authoritative volume starts with a clear introduction to the animal world, examining the reasons for the apparently infinite variety of animal forms and major evolutionary developments. Animal anatomy, life cycles and the principles of classification are also explored. This is followed by a superbly illustrated survey of world habitats, showing how they have adapted to each environment, and the threats that face both wildlife and plants today. The main part of the book, an up-to-date and comprehensive animal catalog, looks in detail at each major group and provides fascinating profiles of over 2,000 individual species. Visually Breathtaking. Spectacular photographic portraits bring a vast array of animals vividly to life, with special features on well-known and important animals such as the Galapagos tortoise. Each species profile is supported by maps and symbols showing distribution and habitat, as well as key information on size, population, and conservation status, forming an invaluable reference database. Outstanding Reference. Clear, comprehensive, and thought provoking, the Smithsonian Animal is essential reading for wildlife enthusiasts of all ages and levels of experience.